Poets' Tour of the Essay

Catalog description

In this advanced workshop seminar, we will read essays that draw us into the question of art and evidence, surveying prose forms that fall across the spectrum. A sub-genre of nonfiction with the ability to shapeshift across forms, essays’ elastic, bridging and blurring qualities span memoir, epistle, catalog, argument, observation, travelogue and more. We will read essays written in the past that demonstrate as much ingenuity as the post-modern, and contemporary essays that straddle genre. We will discuss the “poetics” of the essay as we look for innovation within the form to examine what new insight is gained through experiment. Interested students should bring a literary writing sample to the first class meeting. The instructor will announce at the first class the date/time that a class list and waitlist will be posted (typically a few days after the first class meeting).